Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/400168
of recent entrant Topshop. "They will do their roll out with a soft approach," Springham predicted. By contrast, a few U.K. exports have gone about things more quickly, and the results were not spectacular. Some high-profile U.K. retail failures in the U.S. include supermarket giant Tesco's Fresh & Easy food chain and Marks & Spencer's unfortunate exper- iment with Brooks Brothers. What Primark does have, in any case, is foreign appeal. "If Primark can have that international cachet, which is still very big here, they could really, really take off," said Fred Schmidt, president and COO of Coldwell Banker Com- mercial. Indeed, the chain can draw some encouragement from the success of a few other international brands besides Topshop: Sweden's H&M;, Canada's Joe Fresh and Japan's Uniqlo. The company was right to take its time with any U.S. effort in order to get its logistics in place first, says Gene Spiegelman, vice chairman of retail at Cushman & Wakefield's New York City office, which handled Primark's deal in the U.S. "Many retailers have come to the U.S. and not been successful, so this is not an easy move," said Spiegelman. "And even the most successful have peri- ods of great success, then they have periods of adjustment to reestablish their footing and move forward." Nor will Primark go down the path of joint ventures or franchises, it seems, as the company has decided to forgo any partners; Primark controls all its stores worldwide. But the types of sites it will be looking for are likely to be a mix of stand-alone and mall stores. "I'm sure they'd do other stand-alone sites, like Boston, if the opportunities came along," Springham said. "But equally, I could see them taking ready-made mall space too, of which there is a surfeit in the U.S. I would say they are equally happy doing both." Meanwhile, the retailer is hardly be- ing slack in Europe, where it has lately opened stores in France, the Nether- lands, Germany and Portugal, boosting its total selling space by about 8 percent. In July Primark bought the Pavilions shopping center in Birmingham, for about £25 million. It will occupy the en- tire 250,000-square-foot site. "They are very smart business people who run a smart business model," said Spiegelman. "And by constantly paying attention to what they are doing here — they are going to have lessons to learn like everyone has lessons to learn — I think in the long term, they'll be successful." S C T 26 S C T / N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 r e T a i l i n g T o d a y For multiple generations and through multiple real estate cycles as Simons Real Estate Group, M.J. Neiditz & Company, and Richard S. Korris, we've counseled our partners and clients on developing, managing and growing their assets. Now we're combining forces to create a unique full service frm. Introducing Figure Eight Properties. The new guys on the commercial real estate block that you already know by name F8PRoPERtIES.CoM / 860.313.5400